Bhubaneswar: The central government has started work on reviving the fertiliser plant at Talcher by putting a brand new factory, for which old redundant plant with obsolete machineries is being disposed off, the FertilizerMinistry said today.

“Since the Government of India has planned to set up a new Urea Plant with higher capacity, the old redundant plant with obsolete machineries need to be dismantled for making space for the new plant” the ministry said in a statement.

The old equipment, plant and machinery cannot be used in the new unit and is worth only scrap. This scrap is being sold to make way for setting up of a new plant.

Fertilizer Ministry elaborated that two PSUs Metals Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) and Projects Development India Limited (PDIL) were entrusted with task of sale of unusable items and machineries through e-auction.

“E-auction was held in March this year, subsequently re-auction was held on May 9, as the highest bid received in the first auction was low. In the re-auction, FCIL fetched Rs 112 crore against the reserve price of Rs 85 crore,”the statement added.

Consortium of PSUs including Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (RCF), Coal India Limited (CIL), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL), are working on the project, it added.

RCF has already carried out geo-technical and topography survey of the project site. The Terms of Reference(ToR) for the project has been approved by Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF) and EIA/EMP studies for obtaining environment clearance are in progress.

Joint Venture Companies are being formed for putting up the new Coal-based Fertilizer Plant with a capacity of 11.5 lakh tonnes of Urea and 3.3 lakh tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate.

“State Government of Odisha has since provided ‘Comfort Letter’ in support of the revival of the Talcher Unit,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar will review the progress of the project on June 10. PTI